A whole library had burned down

It is hard to think of Professor Elliot Sperling’s death as anything other than a colossal tragedy. He was only 66 and he exuded life, health and purpose – he was the antithesis of death. After retiring from a long professorship at Indiana University in 2014, he had moved to his native New York

and bought an apartment in Jackson Heights, where he converted every wall into meticulously arranged book shelves – only the windows were spared for understandable reasons. He was looking forward to a busy retirement, living in what was basically a library pretending to be an apartment.

Trails of the Tibetan Tradition

Published by the Amnye Machen Institute and launched in February 2015, Trails of the Tibetan Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling, edited by Roberto Vitali, is a collection of essays by scholars in honour of Tibetologist Elliot Sperling on the occasion of his retirement.